Syria Briefly Deletes Itself From The Internet, Because That Worked So Well In Egypt & Libya

from the not-so-smart dept

As various uprisings have occurred in the middle east, we've seen the regimes in Egypt and Libya try disconnecting the entire country from the internet, after realizing that opposition forces were making use of the internet to coordinate. In neither case did it prevent regime change soon afterwards. Soon after the situation with Egypt, we noted that Syria was actually trying to go in the opposite direction, trying to make use of the internet to communicate its own story... and to keep track of protestors. Of course, in the year plus since then, the situation in Syria has obviously gotten significantly worse and more contentious. And... late last week, it was noted that Syria appeared to remove itself from the internet for about 40 minutes. It was brief, but it at least suggests that someone in the government is toying with the idea of shutting off the internet. Of course, given the two examples of how well that's worked so far, it probably doesn't bode well for Syria's leadership.

At one time regimes like Assad's could shut the borders down and be reasonably sure that they were controlling the flow of information by the judicious use of censorship and adopting the Goebbels way of propaganda and terror to keep the subject people in line. The Internet has changed all that. While states like Syria can shut the internet down there are alternatives such as Blackberry's own mail servers and PIN messaging that don't use the Internet meaning that rebel communication continues while holes are poked in the official firewall from both inside and out.

It doesn't work when a determined populace fights back with all the technical tools and smarts at their disposal. And have more skills and ability than the regime that oppresses them.

Here's Your Determined Populace Right Here

Go ahead and tell us all about the poor suffering Al Qaeda gunmen who have been co-opting this "revolution" from the very start. Just like they did in Libya, and just like they're doing in Iraq.

While you're stumbling around blind as a bat, be sure to explain how the US has any credibility claiming they have no idea whether or not the proxy army THEY created which has flown flags over government buildings in EVERY country they've overthrown since 2003, is actually involved with the "Free Syrian Army".

Mike, as much as I like you and your endeavour... there's much, much more to what's going on in Syria than meets the eye – as has been the case in Lybia or about anywhere the would-be masters of the world are pushing their dirty agendas. For starters, a few days ago:

Lybia?

Mike, i'm sorry, but obviously you didn't pay attention to what was happening in Lybia. It wasn't an uprising. I don't know what's up with Syria as i haven't been watching closely, but Lybia was a completely different scenario from Egypt.

"Strange, last night my internet refused to reconnect for 40 minutes between 2300 and 2340. Of course, there cant be any link at all given the ISP I signed up with 15 years ago has been bought out several times and its technical call centre has been moved from Glasgow to India."

Civil War

Let's see here, Syria says it is targeting militants, yet they blatently fire upon the civilian population. The Iraqi refugees from Saddam Hiesein's reign of terror noted that similar tactics were used by Saddam Husein himself to hide the practices of his regime. There were daily showings if beheadings and dismemberment of "dissidents" over the state controlled media.

Now these tactics aren't as similar as what happened to Iraq, but then again, Saddam Husein was known to use nerv gas on an entire population of his own people.